Marathons Require Pacing

Performing in Marathons is a little different than training for it. Why? Usually when you’re training for a Marathon, your concern is can you do it? Runners rarely run an entire 26.2 mile course in one day. Your training will cycle through distance and speed goals. You’re competitively minded, yes, but you don’t always have other runners with you that you’re trying to beat. 

On race day, you’re out there running with hundreds of other runners. Besides wanting to win, you definitely don’t want to lose to other runners. It’s very hard to let other runners get past you in a Marathon. We do it all the time when we’re in our cars in the highway. The moment somebody tries to pass you, you can’t even help yourself; you push your gas down, too.

But when you’re racing in a Marathon, you must pace yourself. If you push yourself too hard, you may get to the point where you will not be able to run any further unless you take a break. It’s very hard to will your body back into moving after it senses that you’ve had a break down. It just collapses and refuses to run for you. Instead of risking having to fall out of the Marathon, run at your own pace steadily. The temptation will be great to speed up and keep up but remember to stay close to your training times so that you’ll ensure success with completing your first Marathon.

As a practical guide to the 26.2-mile journey, How To Run And Enjoy The Marathon is a series of 15 self-help and service-oriented articles about running marathons - the proper shoes to running etiquette - is written by James Raia, a journalist and veteran middle-of-the-pack marathon and ultramarathon runner in Sacramento, Calif. Click Here to download the ebook!

Related Article(s)

see also marathon training